1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to methods for improving communication between computing devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for efficient communication wherein codes or hash values are used to replace long character strings. Still more particularly, the present invention is a system for improving communication speed and minimizing bandwidth in providing web analytics data between a server and a client.
2. Background of the Invention
Computing systems including their coupling to each other via networks is well known in the art. Such systems can be used in client/server architectures as known in the art to transmit, receive and present data in a variety of formats. However, one issue, especially when using public networks such as the Internet, is the speed at which data can be sent from servers to clients. With the improvements in processing power for both servers and personal computers, the problem is not their processing capabilities, but rather the bandwidth of the network connection between them. Particularly for web analysis/manipulation and data presentation associated with web analytics, the bandwidth of the network is a serious limitation to the effectiveness of these tools because users become frustrated if they have to wait a considerable time before receiving the data of interest. Thus, there is need for systems or methods that solve this problem.
One attempt by the prior art to provide encoding for communication between computing devices is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional system including a first computing device 102 and a second computing device 106 coupled for communication via a network 104. To improve communication, a look-up table 108 may be provided for encoding data streams sent from the first computing device 102 to the second computing device 106 over the network 104. Although shown as a separate from the first computing device 102 in FIG. 1, the look-up table 108 is preferably part of the computing system 102. Moreover, the look-up table 108 could be directly coupled to the network 104 for communication or may route all communication through the first computing device 102 as shown by dotted lines 112 and 114, respectively. However, one problem with the prior art architecture is that traffic is actually increased because the network 104 is used transmit all access to the look-up table 108 so that every time second computing device 106 decodes an encoded word, additional traffic is generated and the network 104 is used for communication necessary to decode the encoded stream. Thus, there is a need for a system that can optimize and improve the speed of communication over a network connection.